Sandwich's China Palace loses liquor license for 15 days

Thursday

Sep 26, 2013 at 10:48 PMSep 26, 2013 at 10:50 PM

SANDWICH – China Palace will have its liquor license suspended for 15 days after the Board of Selectmen found that the restaurant allowed a woman to get drunk, get behind the wheel and injure a state trooper responding to one of two crashes she had that night.

George Brennan

SANDWICH – China Palace will have its liquor license suspended for 15 days after the Board of Selectmen found that the restaurant allowed a woman to get drunk, get behind the wheel and injure a state trooper responding to one of two crashes she had that night.

“There’s a systemic problem in your (restaurant) that you’ve failed to correct,” Selectman Frank Pannorfi said before the Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to suspend the restaurant’s license. Along with the violation, the board voted unanimously that the restaurant hindered the investigation of Sandwich police Sgt. Joseph Cotter by not turning over the woman’s receipt as evidence.

China Palace has five days to appeal the suspension, scheduled to begin Oct. 21, to the state’s Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission.

Selectmen heard testimony that Danyelle Goulette, 23, got drunk at China Palace Restaurant Aug. 1 after being served a mai tai and a vodka tonic within 30 minutes. After leaving the restaurant, she crashed twice in the early morning of Aug. 2 on Route 3 in Plymouth, at one point striking a state trooper who responded to the first crash.

This is not the first time that the restaurant has been disciplined by the board. Last August, China Palace was served a two-day suspension after being found in violation of its liquor license by serving an already intoxicated patron. Three years earlier, the restaurant was also disciplined for three separate incidents, though those were bundled together by the board as one violation.

Under the board’s guidelines, that would have meant a five-day suspension, but Police Chief Peter Wack urged the board to take all of those violations – six in total – into consideration. He recommended the 15-day penalty.

China Palace owner Joseph Chow Wai Leung was defiant during his testimony, saying he didn’t recall the woman being at the restaurant. Asked if he took responsibility for serving Goulette, he said, “No.”

Leung said he would not serve someone showing signs she was drunk. “I would not let any person have two drinks in half an hour,” he said.

Goulette did not testify at the hearing, but Sgt. Joseph Baker, one of the state police troopers who investigated her crash, said Goulette blew a .16 on the Breathalyzer four hours after the crash. She was taken to the hospital in between, he said.

Earlier in the day, selectmen were more lenient with two stores found guilty of their first violations.Meetinghouse Package Store and Sandwich Food Mart were given warnings for selling alcohol to minors.

In the case of Meetinghouse, owner Dennis Konary told the board he has purchased a $3,500 system to detect fake IDs. “We’ve tried to take steps to prevent this from ever happening again,” Konary said.

Though the 20-year-old did not show a fake ID that night, he had been in the store with an ID to purchase alcohol in the past, including on occasion with his father, Konary said. “It’s pretty clear to me that he’s learned a lesson,” Selectman John Kennan said regarding Meetinghouse.

Zahid Rashid, owner of Sandwich Food Mart, said he would consider purchasing a similar system for fake IDs, though he acknowledged his clerk never asked the patron for one. “I am sorry to be here,” Rashid said, noting that he fired the clerk involved and has retrained staff. “I have zero tolerance for this.”

Rashid and Konary got a stern warning from board members. “This is no joke. We’re the licensing authority. We issue licenses. We take them away. It’s that simple,” Selectman John Kennan said.